Going to press this next week if all goes as planned. Will keep you all informed of course.

This is an incredible issue, from the brilliant paintings of Oleg Korolev from The Crimea in Russia, another installment in “The Serpent & The Light” series of Lyterphotos, Delvin Solkinson’s article on emerging Visionary Artist from around the globe. We have Diane Darling interviewing James Fadiman, The metaphysical collage work of reknowned artist and author Jim Harter, the sculptural works of Chuck St. John from Canada to the internationally recognized poetry of Yahia Lababidi & Bryce Milligan. This really is a star studded issue, that will finally emerge from its cocoon!

Stay tuned to announcements on Turfing, on Face Book, Tribe.net, Twitter and elsewhere.

Thanks!
G
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Eagle Taking A Break From Fishing… Along The Tolt RiverRecent Travels…
So…. the whole flying circus went north to visit with Rik and Krista up near the Cascades, not far from Snoqualmie, about a week and a half ago… We spent 2 days and evenings with them. It was very much old times in many ways. They have expanded their menagerie to 17 hens as well as their Dogs Bjarki & Anna as well as there ever loyal cat, Zelda. We got in some nice walking along the river, and Rowan shot some brilliant bits of film along the way. Sophie got to play with Bjarki and Anna to her doggie heart’s content. Watching the dogs running around all day was often hilarious. At the end of the visit we got to watch Bjarki do his thing at dog training. He is ever the smart one.

You may remember Rik as being “The Wizard Of The Upper Cascades”. We were visiting with him and his wife Krista before Rik went in for treatment for some very strange form of what appears to be Leukemia. I put out a prayer/meditation request this last week, and he seems to have gotten through the treatment so far. Fingers crossed!

I want to thank everyone who put out (and continue too put out) good thoughts, prayers and meditations towards Rik’s direction. Hopefully this procedure he just went through will allow them time to diagnose what is going on and to treat it fully. He will have to be kinda isolated for awhile as his immune system has taken a thrashing from the routine the doctors put him through.

The next few months will be bumpy for him, but I feel he will pull through. He has a strong advocate in Krista, and there is lots of love surrounding the pair of them.

Ram Dass just released a new book ” Be Love Now”. I am very excited about it, and hope to order a copy soon. Ram Dass has always been a thoughtful one. Here are some of my favourite quotes from him…

“We’re fascinated by the words–but where we meet is in the silence behind them.”

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”

“It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.”

“In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.”

“The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can’t have it. The minute you don’t want power, you’ll have more than you ever dreamed possible.”
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Syndromeda – Love Is The Answer (to all the questions of our children)

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Mahmud Shabistari – The Mirror

The Mirror (from The Secret Rose Garden)

Your eye has not strength enough
to gaze at the burning sun,
but you can see its burning light
by watching its reflection
mirrored in the water.

So the reflection of Absolute Being
can be viewed in the mirror of Not-Being,
for nonexistence, being opposite Reality,
instantly catches its reflection.

Know the world from end to end is a mirror;
in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.
If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water,
from it will flow a hundred clear oceans;
if you look intently at each speck of dust,
in it you will see a thousand beings.
A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;
in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.
In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.
Within a millet-seed a world exists.
In an insects wing is an ocean of life.
A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye.
The core at the center of the heart is small,
yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.
—-
Cast away your existence entirely,
for it is nothing but weeds and refuse.
Go, clear out your heart’s chamber;
arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved.
When you go forth, He will come in,
and to you, with self discarded,
He will unveil His beauty.
——

Descending to the earth,
that strange intoxicating beauty of the unseen world
lurks in the elements of nature.

And the soul of man,
who has attained the rightful balance,
becoming aware of this hidden joy,
straightaway is enamored and bewitched.

And from this mystic marriage are born
the poets’ songs, inner knowledge,
the language of the heart, virtuous living,
and the fair child Beauty.

And the Great Soul gives to man as dowry
the hidden glory of the world.
——

Behold how this drop of seawater
has taken so many forms and names;
it has existed as mist, cloud, rain, dew, and mud,
then plant, animal, and Perfect man;
and yet it was a drop of water
from which these things appeared.
Even so this universe of reason, soul, heavens, and bodies,
was but a drop of water in its beginning and ending.

…When a wave strikes it, the world vanishes;
and when the appointed time comes to heaven and stars,
their being is lost in not being.
—-

One Light

What are “I” and “You”?
Just lattices
In the niches of a lamp
Through which the One Light radiates.

“I” and “You” are the veil
Between heaven and earth;
Lift this veil and you will see
How all sects and religions are one.

Lift this veil and you will ask –
When “I” and “You” do not exist
What is mosque?
What is synagogue?
What is fire temple?
—
Sun-reflections from the unseen world
are all the object of this mortal sphere,
as curl, down, mole, and brow on a fair face,
for Beauty absolute reigns over all.

…When the ears first hear these words
they seem to denote sensual objects.
But as there is no language for the infinite,
how can we express its mysteries
in finite words?
Or how can the visions of the ecstatic
be described in earthly formula?
So mystics veil their meanings
in these shadows of the unseen,
the objects of the senses.

…As a nurse to an infant,
so is the infinite to the finite.

…Once these words were used in their proper sense,
but now are concealed lest the vulgar should profane.

Annihilation, intoxication, the fever of love
are the three states of the mystic,
and those who abide in these states
at once comprehend the meanings
veiled in these words.
But if you know them not,
don’t pretend you understand like an igonorant infidel,
for all cannot be mystics or grasp the mysteries:
no mere illusions are the mystic’s dreams,
and a man of truth does not speak vainly.
To comprehend requires revelations or great faith.

Briefly have I explained these words and their meanings
so that you may apply them in their right intent,
remembering the attributes of each.
Compare them in a right manner,
and refrain from the wrong comparisons.

Now that these rules are understood
I will show you more of their application.
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Syndromeda – BEYOND DIMENSIONS